To Chase The Shadows of Redemption

Doing everything she could to bury her concerns, Celestia saw Canterlot from afar. She had been flying as fast as she could after she had recovered a bit more. It hadn't taken too long.

The intense magical spike from earlier hadn't been felt for long, but it was unmissable. The duration was probably because of how far away it was.

Seeing Canterlot, seemingly fine and normal as she approached now, she had to temper expectations. It relaxed her a little. She had no idea what was really going on. She hadn't really interacted with any other since Roeshak, and that hadn't been anything real. She had zero information regarding Equestria. Sure, they could work and run things for a while without her, but not forever. Her hyper-focus on saving Luna took precedence of course, but it got her thinking on the catching up to come.

Was it even possible to cover up what was going to happen in Oblatio? She severely doubted it... and she didn't exactly have a lot of time to work with to come up with something, anything, to salvage the situation. All she knew was that saving Luna was non-negotiable at this point. She'd face any consequences to see it through. That didn't mean she wouldn't try to rally things together either, though.

Yes... she could do this. She'd save Luna, figure out an explanation for the destruction of Oblatio, perhaps a rogue griffin force gone deep into pony territory, which she herself would 'vanquish', and guide everything back to normal slowly. That was already a great start. Filling in details later was fine.

Only this time, Luna would be back by her side. This nightmare she had been living in currently would slowly give way to the light of day and the happiness of having her eternal companion back. She knew, deep down, how unforgivable her actions had and will be. She had never been in denial about that. But... she could could never give up because of it either. She had to keep moving forward, no matter what. If Luna, who Celestia wanted to return to her full glory, could rise back up after her own unforgivable sins a thousand years ago, then Celestia could as well. She had to.

Give anything enough time, and it shall heal. Her sister came back from a thousand years of banishment. If that wasn't proof enough, she didn't know what is. Yes. Celestia could get back to leading her ponies into prosperity and happiness, and at large even all of Equus. She'd mine away at the mountain of sin over time. And with enough time... she'd begin to forgive and forget all of this... she wished for nothing more. That, and to be with the one pony who she could never forget, no matter how much time passed.

Nearing the towering spires of the castle, she felt that it was close enough that she wouldn't be wasting too much magic to head back straight into Luna's room. Then, she could bring them straight back out with haste and head straight back for Oblatio.

Celestia's horn hit, and soon she was gone.

A lone alicorn stood looking at nothingness. Her eyes were empty of all emotion.

No, it was not that it was true emptiness, but something that should've filled their vision was missing.

Something she had seen in this exact bed, not too long ago....

She had no idea how long she had stood there. At first, she had double checked the entire room, but now she remained fixated on the empty bed.

Luna was gone. Missing. Disappeared. Abducted?!

Before she had realized it, she was seeing red. Somepony had disobeyed her. Somepony snatched her sister away from her!

The door of the room, which had previously been lightly enchanted, blew off its hinges and slammed into the wall on the opposite site of the hallway. The wall surrounding the door previously was also simply gone. All that remained was the giant hole in which Celestia tautly walked out of, staring daggers at the world.

She made for the only area that made the most sense to her right now, where she was most likely to find any pony at all. The throne room.

A large throng of ponies stood collected in the throne room. A few hundred. There was copies being spread to everypony that needed it for further escalation of proof across several impromptu tables, and several parties here who had come to support their cause after learning the truth. The rest had been detained for now.

Maverick was currently in the mix of another heated conversation, something he felt hadn't stopped since all of this started.

"I'm telling you, we gather every powerful mage we can and force her to step down and into custody! We've already had so many volunteer to join us after hearing the truth. We should keep spreading the word and—"

"And what if she willingly gives herself up? We have no idea what she will do when we confront her with all of this." said Maverick, who secretly prayed that the former was exactly how she would act.

"Are you kidding me, Maverick? She may be graceful and courteous on the surface, but she has always been headstrong, how many times has she directly overruled the majority of the ministry and basically bashed our decision making abilities, embarrassing us? I can think of far too many examples."

"You and I both know—"

"She only did that because—"

"We have to finish this before the military comes ba—"

A echoing slam broke the attention of every pony in the throne room. They all looked to see where it came from, the main doors and entrance.

Standing there, stood no other than the centre of all this controversy and conspiracy for the past few days.

Princess Celestia, who came not in kindness, lacking all decorum and usual grace, and looking demonstratively as though she had just been pulled directly from a war zone. Her scowl swam through the room and infected everypony present.

"I don't know which pony to ask, so I ask you all. Where did you put her. Where is my sister Luna?"

Now that Maverick had time to look her over proper, he couldn't help but notice how cold her visage really was. How tense her posture was, and how her words were laced with... threat?

Being one of the ponies at the forefront of all of this, he nervously nodded to his colleagues as they gave him the look. Damn them all for making him be the one to have to do this.

"Princess Celestia! You are hereby under arrest, for plotting to enact genocide through a dark magical ritual on the city of Oblatio, instigating the war with the Griffin Kingdom by killing Emperor Cyrel, which led to the deaths of tens of thousands of ponies and griffins alike, covering up the tragedy of Riftly, and much more for all we know! We demand that you stand down, and face trial for these crimes. A fair trial. We shall present the accompanying evidence then fully. You are to be detained because of the active threat of the aforementioned plan surrounding Oblatio, with magical inhibitors for the time being. Do you accede to this?"

Nopony had really seen Celestia shocked before. They were seeing it now, in full bloom. It wasn't to last however, as her stern gaze returned.

"Arrest? Listen to me very carefully, my little pony, I don't know what you all think you've found or heard, but I can assure you it is all fabrications and duplicity," said Celestia, as she slowly stalked to stand directly before him, towering and looking down at him. "Are we clear? Now... Tell. Me. Where. My. Sister. Is."

Maverick swallowed nervously. He cast a sideways glance both ways, and saw that whatever he was feeling was nothing compared to the stressed mess around him. His next words would break the tenuous peace before the imperious goddess before them, and that was reflected in all of their terrified expressions.

He chose his words carefully.

"First of all... speaking of this sister... I can tell you that we have no idea who exactly you are referring to—"

Her eyes bore down on him hard, and he almost shrank into the ground to hide away under it. But he could not allow himself to falter here. He had swore to himself, long ago, that he would do what was right. It was a principle he had followed all his life with urgency. Now was no different, when it was being tested in the more dire of ways. When having a spine actually mattered was when you had it when things required the toughest of decisions.

"Do not lie to me, little pony, I give you all one more chance. Tell me where she is right now."

The tension, as if it wasn't bad enough before, reached a peak fever. Maverick was pretty sure that he had already sweat several gallons. He was drenched.

Every single pony in the room, other than the princess had mentally answered, and scolded themselves for thinking the same thing: "or else what?"

Maverick had to do something. His mind raced a thousand miles per second. With Celestia bearing down on him like this it was almost impossible. But they couldn't just take all of this back. His conviction didn't falter, but he had no idea how things were going to break down after he answered. Perhaps he should give a signal to his men to engage her? She did look exhausted after all... after you got past the anger which stole your attention away.... Did she have it in her to fight back? If you had asked him at any point during his life until the past few days, he would've answered immediately that he couldn't even imagine her hurting a butterfly. What stood before him gave him an entirely different outlook on life. And... and if what they had found out was true, which they all clearly agreed on did-no, he had to stop thinking like that. There was undeniable proof of her evil! What it clearly showed was that she had no qualms about hurting any pony, that was for sure.

He was also truly lost on an answer. They had heard a little bit about this mare called Luna from Ruby, but he had not learned much more than that due to circumstances. Had some part of his group acted on their own and learned knowledge about this individual from Ruby he didn't, specifically where she was held, and taken her? Was that even possible? What in blasted Tartarus was going on? He had thought that Ruby's refusal to give a full explanation until later was ridiculous, but they had respected it due to her assistance and offer for further help once they had gotten to trial. He realized how stupid that was now, far too late. Their own cowardice in lacking the ability to press her further had messed things up, especially since some other schism in their group had taken it into their own hooves apparently. That was all he could think of.

But how could he answer in these conditions?!

As his mind raced, pushed to its absolute limits by facing what felt like death in the face, he heard a pin drop.

"Princess Celestia! Tell me isn't true! That my comrades didn't die in a war that you started! That their lived were lost because of your selfishness! That my nightmares-"

"Nightmares?"

Princess Celestia stalked up to the older unicorn, he stood defiantly against her. He was surrounded by fellow unicorns, some of which were semi-famous wizards and professors from colleges. They gave him space as she approached.

"What would you know of nightmares? Do you know how long I've been trapped inside a dark room, waiting for a sliver of light to break through the ceiling and lead me back into reality?

"Do you know how long I suffered, alone and miserable with only myself to blame? You know nothing of nightmares my little pony. Your mere existence is but a blink of my eyes."

Nopony had much a clue what she was talking about, but Maverick felt like he had an inkling of an idea by now.

"Answer my question!"

"WHERE. IS. LUNA!"

Celestia staggered not a second after yelling, but caught herself. It took a second for everypony in the room to process the torn up and slightly bloody patch on Celestia which had come from some sort of blast. Everypony in the room turned to the lone offender, whose horn lightly smoked from casting.

"GIVE ME BACK MY—"

A flash, and every pony had to either close or avert their eyes.

There, a sizzling and bloody heap lay against the cracked wall on the side of the room. They could all feel the heat from the thermal wave. Smoke rose from the body. The section of stained glass above the wall shattered, and shards rained down both outside and inside.

"What?"

All eyes were back on Celestia except for Maverick. He didn't understand something about the corpse, there was something strange about it. While ponies started backing away as subtly as they could, he realized what it was that he saw. There was a faint layer of darkness covering over the body, flickering lightly. What had Celestia done to that pony?

Finally, he turned back to face her.

"It was treason, was is not?"

Celestia slowly smiled.